The California Energy Commission awarded a $4.9 million grant to PEER on May 15 to improve the seismic risk assessment of natural gas storage and pipeline infrastructure.

During the 2.5-year project, PEER will develop open-source software to better assess risks to natural gas storage and pipeline systems from seismic activity. The tool will improve the safety and integrity of natural gas storage, piping, and infrastructure systems by helping regulators and owners direct seismic mitigation efforts to the most vulnerable components.

“In the event of an earthquake, natural gas pipeline and storage facilities could experience significant damage,” said Professor Jonathan Bray, principal investigator of the project. “It is not hard to imagine the impact that damage of our natural gas system could have on everything from response to recovery efforts.”

“This collaborative project combines researchers from three PEER core institutions, a National Lab, industry member, and the NHERI SimCenter,” said Professor Khalid Mosalam, Director of PEER. “Through PEER’s use of the new open-source software, we expect this innovative project to have long lasting impact on the state of practice. PEER is excited to be providing support to this project at many levels including experiments, software maintenance, and outreach activities.”